Okay, we've cover the first 5 numbers a savvy growth investor should look at (as per Louis Navellier's The Little Book That Makes You Rich). The final 3 are as important as those first 5.
6. Earnings Growth
We talked about Sales Growth in #3, but earnings growth is as important. As sales increase, earnings should also increase (the stock price is aligned with earnings, not necessarily sales).
Which leads to the next factor…
7. Positive Earnings Momentum
Navellier not only likes earnings growth year over year, quarter over quarter (quarters should be compared with the same quarter in the previous year) but he likes this growth to be accelerating every quarter.
8. High Return On Equity
Return On Equity is one of the fundamental benchmarks for most investors. Why? Because this is the investor's return. As Navellier states "A company that has a very strong return on the dollars that have been invested is more likely to produce strong free cash flow." The company won't have to borrow or issue stock or do other things that erode shareholder value. Navellier reminds us to compare ROE between companies in the same industry, not across the entire market.
We are also cautioned not to look at any of the 8 factors in isolation. They are all important, they should all be looked at.
There's more to The Little Book That Makes You Rich than these 8 fundamental factors for evaluating growth stocks (being interested in the psychology of investing, I enjoyed his chapter on common investing mistakes). If you're interested in growth investing, the book is well worth the read.